I’ve been writing about the half-a-billion dollar, money-sucking, solar failure known as Solyndra, for over a year, and now the Washington Times has found year another federally-funded boondoggle: the Genesis Solar Company. Reports the Times: Last week, the Obama administration’s Department of Energy announced it is extending an $852 million loan guarantee to something called the Genesis Solar Project in California. Genesis, according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, will be built on federal land and ultimately employ perhaps 800 people during its construction and 47 people once it is up and...

It was so predictable. Solyndra, a San Francisco based solar panel company that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government, has declared bankruptcy. Last year President Obama touted the company as “leading the way” in the green jobs future he envisions. Just a few months ago, ABC News revealed that one of the major financial backers for Solyndra is also a major donor to the Obama campaign. The donor, Steve Westley, has subsequently been named to the President’s Energy Advisory Board. Solyndra was supposed to have produced 4,000 jobs with the loan guarantee....

According to a report released Monday, rates of mental illness, including depression and post-traumatic stress, will increase as a result of climate change. The paper, prepared for the Climate Institute, says loss of social cohesion in the wake of severe weather events related to climate change could be linked to increased rates of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and substance abuse. The research claims as many as one in five people already have reported ”emotional injury, stress and despair” in the wake of these events. The report, A Climate of Suffering: The Real Cost of...

Just in time for the holiday weekend!  These ribs are delicious, and easy to fix! Plus, they drive the environmentalists crazy as a barbecue–complete with billowing clouds of carbon dioxide–is required to finish these tasty treats off.  The last time I published this recipe I received excellent reviews from all over the world, including lots of folks in Texas and the Southern U.S.–that’s a huge compliment because those patriots know their barbecue. Here’s the recipe: Sussman’s World Famous Patriot Ribs Cover both sides of the baby back ribs with BBQ rib rub of...

Some idiot named Bill McKibbin writes at the Daily Beast: Irene’s got a middle name, and it’s Global Warming.  As she roars up the Eastern Seaboard, everyone is doing what they should—boarding windows, preparing rescue plans, stocking up on batteries. But a lot of people are also wondering: what’s a “tropical” storm doing heading for the snow belt? McKibben is not only a fool, but he’s hardly original. When the Gulf of Mexico coastline took its direct hit from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a lefty columnist for the Boston Globe blamed the storm on global warming.  “The hurricane...

Over the next 18 months, the Environmental Protection Agency will finalize a flurry of new standards to curb pollution from coal-fired power plants.  Mercury, air particulate, ozone, coal ash, and especially carbon dioxide—it’s all getting regulated in the name of “saving the environment” and supposedly curbing global warming.  The new rules will likely force the closure of many coal plants between now and 2017, although it’s difficult to know precisely how many.   As a result it’s likely that up to one-fifth of the nation’s oldest coal-fired electrical generating plants,...

It’s yet another example of why the government should stay out of the alternative energy business: Reports the Boston Herald: Evergreen Solar Inc., the Massachusetts clean-energy company that received millions in state subsidies from the Patrick administration for an ill-fated Bay State factory, has filed for bankruptcy, listing $485.6 million in debt. Evergreen, which closed its taxpayer-supported Devens factory in March and cut 800 jobs, has been trying to rework its debt for months. The cash-strapped company announced today has sought a reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and...

Despite his Nobel Prize, Oscar and a net worth likely surpassing $100 million, Al Gore is a miserable failure.  He lost his one big shot at the White House, his family is a mess and his marriage to Tipper, his college sweetheart, ended in ruin due to his affair with actor Larry David’s wife. The other aspect of Gore’s life that sucks is his insistence that mankind’s burning of fossil fuels is warming the planet.  The science he relies on for this belief is riddled with holes, and on a weekly basis more and more well known scientists are voicing their skepticism or denial regarding...

My good friend and esteemed atmospheric physicist, Fred Singer,  asserts that global warming, rather than endangering food production as climate change alarmists say, will likely increase production instead. “The latest catastrophic forecast comes to us from climate alarmists who focus on a world food crisis, supposedly as a consequence of global warming,” says Dr. Singer, a professor emeritus of environmental science at the University of Virginia and former founding director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service. “While there may well arise problems about world food, it is more likely that...

On page 115 of Climategate I write: Another fib from Gore’s film is, “a new study shows that for the first time they’re finding polar bears that have actually drowned, swimming long distances of up to 60 miles to find the [Arctic] ice.” His lines are accompanied by cheesy animation of what appears to be a narcoleptic polar bear struggling to climb aboard a lonely sliver of sea ice.  The weight of the bear snaps the thin ice chip like a Rye-Crisp.  The polar bear is doomed to drown. This too, is another fascinating work of fiction. It has always been assumed that Gore was referring to the...

This article is running in the upcoming edition of the Buffalo Gap (Texas) News: I know in Texas it’s been hotter than two goats in a pepper patch, but out here on the left coast it’s been a very mild summer.  In fact throughout far West, Pacific Northwest, the Northern Rockies and the Northern Plains, it’s been a relatively cool summer. My son plays football at one of your wonderful universities in Abilene (the one that boasts a Cowboy as it’s mascot) and he tells me they haven’t had a practice this summer where the temperature’s been much below 100. Funny how the lame-stream media has...

My good friends at CNS News are illustrating why the EPA needs to be totally overhauled: The Environmental Protection Agency has given at least $1,285,535 in grants to China to promote environmental research in the country. In all, the EPA issued six grants that went to China, most of which pertained to researching methane in Chinese coal mines and reducing carbon emissions in China, a communist dictatorship long criticized by human rights groups. Two of those grants were awarded during the Bush administration; four were awarded during the Obama administration. The issue, at a time of mounting debt...